A Full DayDate
by jylener22
Summary: Ichigo and Orihime go out on a date. Aww, how sweet, right? However, this date has something of a theme going on. A bit fluffy, but only a little dialogue. Just a simple date story. :)


A Full Day/Date

This date was going to be...for lack of a better term, insane. It was ludicrous. Absolutely nutty. There was no way it was going to work out properly.

Ok, so maybe Ichigo had not taken Orihime on a date in quite some time and maybe he did have a substantial amount of funds in order to take care of all the bills that would be accumulated on this day, but seriously…what had he been thinking when he agreed to this? It was to be a date completely centered around enjoying the arts in almost all its glorious forms.

First, Ichigo had purchased tickets to see a special exhibit in the art museum displaying sets, costumes, playbills and other paraphernalia of Shakespeare plays over the years. Then, he was going to take Orihime to an outdoor production of Shakespeare's immortal play 'Much Ado About Nothing' followed by going home in order to change into some fancier outfits so that they could go to an exquisite restaurant and enjoy a fine dining experience. To wrap up the whole evening, he was taking Orihime to the opera 'Otello' by Giuseppe Verdi.

Exactly what had he gotten himself into? A Shakespeare Extravaganza. Not that he was complaining about the whole Shakespeare aspect since he is 'the Bard', but this was going to be a very full day.

The idea actually had not come from Orihime herself, but from his friends. When he had asked them for suggestions on where he could take Orihime on their date, he had basically begun drowning in all the ideas they had to contribute. Under normal circumstances, he would have only needed to take one person's suggestion, but since he and Orihime would not be seeing each other for the next four months they had all but forced him to make the most of this 'last date'.

For the next four months, Ichigo would be getting used to his new job at Karakura Hospital while Orihime traveled to Europe for a 'Study Abroad' class on classic literature. She was getting her degree in Japanese Literature and this was one of the classes she needed in order to graduate. While Orihime could take the class at the university, Ichigo and Tatsuki had finally managed to convince her that this was a 'once in a lifetime' opportunity and so she decided to sign up. Even though Ichigo would be sure to contact Orihime over the next couple of months (Tatsuki hadn't really needed to threaten him with all manner of painful retributions if he failed to contact her at least once every two days), it wouldn't be the same.

Despite the fact that today was going to be rather expensive, that was the least of Ichigo's worries. When one calculated how many dates and opportunities he would miss spending with Orihime with how much he was forking over for this one day, the costs were fairly equal. No, what he was worried about was the fact that something might go wrong and mess up his carefully organized schedule. One 'misstep' and the whole date could be ruined.

Ichigo mentally and physically shook himself and said out loud, "Quit worrying about what might happen. The minute you start thinking like that, things WILL start to go wrong," and with that declaration, Ichigo finished getting himself ready.

The trip to Orihime's house and then to the museum went better than could be expected. He only yelled at two stupid drivers, the first for cutting him off for no apparent reason and the second for not paying attention and nearly colliding into Orihime's side of the car when he decided to switch lanes. Even though he didn't turn the air blue with cursing, his face was quite red in irritation while he grumbled about how people were such numbskulls with brains no bigger than a pea.

Finally, they arrived at the museum and started meandering around the exhibits. Orihime 'oohed' and 'ahhed' and almost seemed ready to drool over some of the fancy female costumes. One Juliet ball gown was so ornate and rich looking that Ichigo felt as though he had bruised a few ribs trying to keep his laughter contained from looking at Orihime's adorable look of longing and borderline envy.

It was especially hilarious when she rounded on one poor girl who seemed to be just as enthralled with the gown as Orihime herself was. No words were spoken, but Orihime's expression for a moment clearly said 'Back away! This is mine!' before she gained control of herself, turned bright red, bowed and stammered out a hasty apology. She then quickly made her way to the next glass case of old playbills and posters with Ichigo meandering after her.

A little later, Ichigo checked his watch and saw that they had about forty-five minutes to make it to the outdoor play. While it took some finagling to get Orihime to leave her beloved displays, finally they exited the museum and began making their way to the outdoor theater. They arrived with time to spare and Ichigo was relieved to see that there were some food vendors so that they could eat something while they were enjoying the performance. Apparently, Orihime was excited to see them as well since the moment she exited the car she began rambling about which foods she would like to try.

The play was mediocre. To paraphrase the words of Shakespeare 'The ladies doth protest too much' as it seemed as if the two actresses playing Beatrice and Hero were actually rivals trying to vie for the attention of the actor playing Don Pedro, which was really strange. The rest of the cast was decent, but when the actors of Benedick and Claudio came on along with Don Pedro Ichigo could sense them only really quoting their lines in resignation as their supposed 'love interests' really weren't interested in them.

What made the play enjoyable for Ichigo though was watching Orihime's reactions to the dialogue and situations in the play. That and watching her eat. When Benedick gave his monologues, he improved dramatically and was quite comedic in his delivery of his lines. At his lines, 'Shall quips and sentences and these paper bullets of the brain awe a man from the career of his humour? No, the world must be peopled. When I said I would die a bachelor, I did not think I should live till I were married,' Orihime laughed so hard that Ichigo had so wrap his arm around her shoulders in order to keep her from falling over.

When the play finally ended, it was time for them to head home, quickly change and then Ichigo drove back to Orihime's house in order to pick her up. He was wearing a nice black suit with a blue-green tie (supposedly, according to Tatsuki and Orihime's other friends, the color would complement Orihime's outfit nicely) and he got out in order to properly escort Orihime to his car this time around.

The moment Orihime opened the door, Ichigo was struck dumb. Even though Ichigo had always thought Orihime was beautiful without make-up or fancy clothes, he had to admit that seeing her dressed up like this made him want to do fancy dates like this more often. Her make-up was tasteful and neatly applied to her face, yet he could still see her natural skin quite easily so she wasn't positively covered in the stuff. Next he noticed a light, flowery scent mixed with some light fruity scents like pears and raspberries wafting past his nose.

Lastly, her dress was perfect. Like his tie, it was blue-green in color, but with a deeper shade of blue and green to make it seem like the depths of the ocean had been used to color her dress. The neckline was modest, covering her entire chest, but the top came to her collarbone and then turned into sleeves that reached her elbows. Around her neck was a string of pearls Ichigo had gotten her for her birthday last year and the matching bracelet was attached to her right wrist.

At the restaurant, Orihime got a lot of appreciative looks from the males in the vicinity to which Ichigo responded with wrapping his arm protectively around Orihime's shoulders as they made their way to their table. Unbeknownst to him, Ichigo was also getting his fair share of longing stares from the female population in the restaurant. However, despite all the people gaping at them, Ichigo and Orihime had a lovely dinner and conversation with one another.

Then it was time to head over to the opera house and get settled in their seats about a half hour before the opera was scheduled to start. That left them with more than enough time for Orihime to get out of her seat and explore the opera house with all its beautifully painted, furnished and decorated hallways.

Also, out in the lobby area there was a gift shop as well as some tables selling different paraphernalia for not only Otello but also other operas and musicals that had come to that particular opera house. When Ichigo caught Orihime once again mooning over something at one of the tables he found himself grinning. However, this time he could actually acquire the object of her desire which happened to be a beautiful pair of opera glasses. He threw in a hardcover book describing the most popular and enduring operas from over the years. At first, Orihime protested like she usually did, but when Ichigo kept ignoring her and changing the subject she finally let the matter rest.

The opera itself was spellbinding. Ichigo could find no fault with the orchestra, the sets, costumes and the singers themselves were positively phenomenal. There were a couple of times when the singer who played Iago had too wide of a vibrato for some of his passages and Desdemona missed one or two of her higher notes, but overall the production was as close to perfection as Ichigo had ever seen.

Orihime seemed to share his opinion, but unlike in the afternoon when she had laughed so freely, now with the sad nature of the plot Orihime's sensitive heart seemed to slowly break apart piece by piece. To see such a devoted couple as Otello and Desdemona slowly torn apart by one man's spite caused Orihime to shed more than a few tears.

At the very end, when Otello gathered Desdemona into his arms and sang out her name with all the despair and anguish he could possibly muster, Orihime's hand gripped the arm of her chair and her mouth opened as if to call out to the suffering man. Reaching over, Ichigo took Orihime's hands between his own and even though she didn't acknowledge him Ichigo could see her visibly relax even though her expression still seemed to share Otello's pain.

After all the cast had taken their bows and the lights came up, Orihime seemed to come back to reality. She looked over at Ichigo with eyes still full of emotion and he responded by gently reaching up to wipe the tears tracks from her cheeks. Her response was to lay her cheek against his shoulder and they sat like that for a few moments while everyone else hurriedly made their way into the aisles in the hopes of being first to their cars. Ichigo was sure that he and Orihime got their fair share of concerned or curious stares, but he didn't care at the moment. He would wait until Orihime was ready to go.

On the car ride home, they sat in comfortable silence for a time before Ichigo broke it by talking about his plans for the next couple of months. Orihime listened and spoke a little but mostly just allowed Ichigo to soothe her while in this emotional state.

When they arrived at Orihime's apartment building, Ichigo walked her to her door. He was fully prepared to watch her close her door and then walk back to his car, but she surprised him when instead of saying 'Good night' she reached up, pulled him down to her level and expressed just how much she had enjoyed everything they had done that day and how much she loved him for being so thoughtful. He responded in kind conveying that it had been his pleasure to do something for her that she had enjoyed so much. As they broke apart, neither felt the need to say anything more and went their separate ways for the time being.

Three months did seem like a long time right at the moment, but by taking things one day at a time the time would pass quickly enough. Also, absence can make the heart grow fonder and the sting of parting only makes the joy of reunion all the sweeter.

**Author's Note:**

This is a story I decided to write in honor of AngelusAmy's birthday over on deviantart...and it is several weeks belated since I am such a horrible procrastinator.

Anyway, there is not a lot of dialogue in here since I thought I'd try something different. Maybe sometime in the future I'll try to do something where all I use is dialogue, but we'll see.

Happy Birthday sweetie! Hope you like your gift and thank you so much for being such a good friend!


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